SIGNS OF APARTHEID

These South African signs are examples of what was known as Petty Apartheid. South Africa’s Apartheid — an Afrikaans word meaning “apart-hood” — was implemented by the National Party after winning the country’s 1948 general election. Petty Apartheid was the range of laws implemented by the National Party that placed detailed restrictions on the behaviour of the different races in the country.

While Grand Apartheid was responsible for demarcating separate Homelands within South Africa, Petty Apartheid began with the 1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages. This was followed by 1950’s Immorality Amendment, which outlawed “unlawful racial intercourse” or “any immoral or indecent act” between the races.

The core of the Apartheid system was the division of people into racial groups using a complex and trivial series of tests. The result was the classification of the population into one of four groups: White, Black, Indian and Colored, with Colored and Indian groups further subdivided. (The group names are capitalised here to indicate their use under Apartheid.)

The “pencil test” decreed that if an individual could hold a pencil in their hair when they shook their head, they could not be classified as White.

The tests were primarily based on appearance — skin color, facial features, appearance of head (and other) hair. Most infamously, the “pencil test” decreed that if an individual could hold a pencil in their hair when they shook their head, they could not be classified as White. The tests were so imprecise that members of an extended family could be classified in different racial groups.

Every year people were reclassified. In 1984, for example, 518 Colored people were defined as White, two Whites were called Chinese, one White was reclassified as Indian, one White became Colored and 89 Colored people became Black.

For political, diplomatic and economic reasons, certain groups and their descendants, including Japanese, Taiwanese and South Korean immigrants, were classified as “honorary White.” Only the White group could live free of any restrictions. All other racial groups suffered the laws of Petty Apartheid.

1952

A woman sat in the wagon reserved for White people to protest against Apartheid.

IMAGE: KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GETTY IMAGES

As these signs showed, the restrictions intruded into all aspects of life. While Colored and Indian groups had access to some privileges, the sharpest distinction was between Black and White. The 1953 Separate Amenities Act of 1953 stated that separate facilities no longer had to be “substantially equal.”

There were a handful of places where segregation didn’t occur, notably drug-dealing nightclubs and churches. Though the lack of segregation in churches was not for want of trying. Blacks could not attend White churches under the 1957 Churches Native Laws Amendment Act, but the law was largely unenforced.

South African President P.W. Botha began to tear down Petty Apartheid in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But while the outward — and literal — signs of Apartheid started to be removed under Botha, the level of brutality against Blacks increased. Following the end of the Apartheid system in 1994, Botha was found responsible for gross violations of human rights under the nation’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He maintained he had no regrets.

1956

White children paddling in a pond marked by a sign reading “For European Children Only.”

IMAGE: THREE LIONS/GETTY IMAGES

Apartheid cannot be reformed; it has to be eliminated.

OLOF PALME, SWEDEN’S PRIME MINISTER, FEBRUARY 1986. A WEEK LATER HE WAS MURDERED.

c. 1955

Signs in English and Afrikaans, in Wellington railway station, South Africa, enforcing the policy of apartheid or racial segregation.

IMAGE: EVANS/THREE LIONS/GETTY IMAGES

1957

Signs in both English and Afrikaans in Johannesburg.

IMAGE: ULLSTEIN BILD/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

1960

A bench in Albert Park, Durban.

GREY VILLET/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

1960s

A park for Non-European women.

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

1967

A Taxi rank for white people.

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

1971

A sign outside a park restricts its use to ‘European mothers with babies in arms’.

IMAGE: MR HEWISON/KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES

1974

An apartheid notice on a beach near Cape Town.

IMAGE: KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES

1976

An apartheid notice on a beach near Cape Town.

IMAGE: KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES

1978

A rail wagon with the words ‘Non-Whites’.

IMAGE: LEHNARTZ / ULLSTEIN IMAGE VIA GETTY IMAGES

1982

A railway carriage reserved for white people only.

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

1986

Toilets restricted to use by “Black, Coloreds & Asians” at a bus station.

IMAGE: WILLIAM F. CAMPBELL/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

I don’t care what they remember about me. I led South Africa on the right path.

P.W. BOTHA, 2006

1986

Whites only sign in foreground at restricted beach, with bathers in background.

IMAGE: WILLIAM F. CAMPBELL/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

I apologise in my capacity as leader of the NP to the millions who suffered wrenching disruption of forced removals; who suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination.

F. W. DE KLERK, 1997

1988

A sign reading ‘Bathing area for Whites Only’ on a beach at Victoria Bay, Western Cape.